The things my heart desires

Flickr

The Pledge

Google analytics

My thoughts

After neglecting my drawing and painting so much last year for one reason or another I had decided that the thing that I really wanted to do was to take a class in drawing and painting again. I may not have mentioned this before, but on applying for and entering art college my intention had always been to study painting. However, worried about the career prospects of being an 'artist', after a years foundation course I ultimately chose to follow a degree in performance costume hoping that I would as a mature student be more likely to gain some employment on graduating!

There are times in the last 4 and half years where I have wished that I had followed my fine art leanings at art college however I am a great believer in 'what's fer ye will not pass by ye' as we scots are known to mutter on occassion! The work that I have created in the last 3 or so years has been very much inspired by my degree in peformance costume with an emphasis on character and storytelling - however I sometimes wonder what my work would have been if I had followed painting?

Mmmm so much thought! Anwway... I have at times in my blogging written about my struggles with creating art, having the confidence to push forward and develop my own style and create work that is truly representative of my character.

Last year was a particularly barren year in terms of drawing and painting for me. Whilst I made a few character dolls, 2d work was a rarety and this year I really want to re-focus and almost get back to basics, re-learning some techniques I have neglected and focus on technique and ideas. I have been wanting to return to the art college to perhaps take a couple of summer school classes but as finances are also on my mind they will have to wait a wee while yet (perhaps next year!). Oh I would have given my eye teeth to have taken the classes titled Developing Drawing, Drawing and painting in the natural world or Narrative painting! I have already taken classes with a few of the tutors in the painting department whilst taking a years portfolio class and I remember them being so incredibly inspiring and feeling that in a week my work came on in leaps and bounds. I cannot wait for the potential opportunity to study again with them next year.

So in the absence of a real-life course I have now started studying on my first on-line course and I am really excited about drawing again! It is a drawing and painting portrait class run by the wonderful Misty Mawn and we are in the first week. It is so refreshing to be re-learning skills I had almost forgotten and to be drawing for the sake of it rather than with an end product in mind. These 2 drawings here are my first attempts in 5 years to do any kind of drawing from life and boy I have a long way to go! But that is the purpose of it after all - to not be fearful of making mistakes and things not being perfect but just to draw, draw, draw!

I shall keep you updated on my progress over the next 4 weeks of the course. I already know that once this course is over I will be keen to follow another one so if you have take any on-line courses that you can recommend I would love to hear of them!

I am so very glad it is a new year with new possibilities, prospects and exciting things to look forward too. The latter part of 2009 was a mixed bag of worries, anxiety and stress with my partner in hospital after a planned surgery which did not exactly go to plan atall! However he is now slowly on the mend and I am ready to leave all those worries behind and leap wholeheartedly into this brand new year.

So far it has been a rather sedate and relaxing first week and even my usual part-time reminiscnece work days have been working from home due to the wonderful weather conditions, but it has been lovely to take some time to rest and gather my thoughts after the last 3 months rollercoaster ride and now I am ready to make some plans and get back to work.

So far I have two big events to look forward to - #1 in April is my very first trade fair which I am so very excited about. Yes, there is a wee glimmer of apprehension there too, but I am looking forward to showing my work to a different audience in the form of buyers for galleries and boutiques. I have alot of planning and preparation for this event which is on a scale that I have not yet experienced but I am ready to take on the challenge!

#2 is our wedding - now some folks may remember that this was actually due to happen last year - well for one reason and another we had to postpone it but this year it is all go! We are looking at Autumn and whilst I am not the type of gal to chat about every detail (infact I think I may be in denial as I often forget it is even so close!) there may be the odd mention here now and again... maybe.

Of course there are lots of other things to look forward to - several exhibiting opportunities, new work, continuing to create our home on a budget, planning our honeymoon (now that I will be more than happy to chat endlessly about!) and all the things that are whirling about in my mind.

I am not one for making resolutions atall but I do hope to keep more up to date with my blog, make more time for myself and get back to creating for the pure enjoyment of it as well as it being a big part of making my living.

A few wee things I have purchased/been gifted, in order to help me along with the creating/'making things for us' plan include.....

1) a breadmaker - hands down the best christmas gift....ever. Gifted to us by my dad and step-mum, this has already been put to good use time and time again since Christmas. Whole-meal loaves, honey and sunflower seed bread, multi-grain bread, the list goes on. Bread is so expensive to buy now and this is helping us save money as well as being really satisfying to use! (I know, I know - kneading bread and making from scratch would be equally, if not more satisfying but from past experience I just know that I can't put the hours aside every couple of days to do this...)

2) a stock pot/slow cooker - bit of a foodie theme going on here - but we love healthy, hearty meals and again it will help us be more thrifty with our cooking. Again we have used this so much already for soups, stews and chilli and I can't wait to find more and more ways of using this!

3) a wee collection of crafty books bought with money gifts - I will hopefully get to posting about these tomorrow as of course they deserve a post all of their own!

(Above is a new character created just before Christmas - unfortunately I had to name her in a hurry due to rushing new work into a gallery and now I can't remember for the life of me what she is called!)

if you so wish....... I had wanted to let you know before but was so stupidly nervous about the whole thing that I didn't really want to tell many people - but I made an appearance on BBC Nottingham radio this morning! Although I was feeling so sick before it, the actual interview wasn't half as bad as I thought it might be and listening back I almost sound coherant....

short and sweet (and gosh I sound so much different than I thought I did!!!) you can find the interview here and it is about 2hrs and 10 minutes into the show - it didn't take long for me to load and you can skip to the actual bit with me in it - it is only about 10 minutes long with a song half way through). I had so many things noted down to talk about and they didn't ask me about any of it!

It will only be at this link for the next 7 days (till next tuesday) so I need to figure out how to save it to disc before then when it will hopefully be on my website so I will let you know the link to that when I have it.

PS. please excuse my rather annoying habit (which I have only just noticed) where I go Hmmmm quite alot and then make a sort of a tutting sound................. I sound so disapproving! But I am pleased to note that even after 4 years in Nottingham I have retained my wee semi-scottish accent!

Well if you are a regular reader of this blog you may not, or you may think you know almost all there is to know already..................... or you may find out something new!!!

What am I on about? (indeed) If you hop on over here, you can read my interview as featured artist for the month of June for the Nottingham Craft Mafia. My work will be featured on display in the 'Get Made' shop from this Thursday 4th June till end of the month.

It's kind of long (again my inability to write in a concise way) but there is also a wee reveal of the up and coming collaboration I have hinted at here on this blog - I promise to write more about it soon!

Well it has been a struggle but I have finally got there (almost). It took most of the bank holiday weekend whilst the weather was sunny and gorgeous....but four days later I have my 'almost' completed website. Re-named, re-branded, more re-presentative of me (ha see what I did there!) Ok so I am clearly in need of some good fresh air as I have spent far too long in doors!

And in honour of it's launch - TODAY!!! (you may even be the first person to view it if you hop on over there now) I am hosting a celebratory give-away (this is not announced on the website as it is exclusive to you - the faithful few who still read my blog after all this time and my irregular posting habits!!)

All I ask is that you hop on over there, have a wee scout about, and return here and leave an HONEST critique. The lay-out is hopefully quite simple and this was a look I wanted. Originally when thinking about my website I thought I wanted all the bells and whistles but now I realise that I want the work to stand out and my persona as an artist. This is my professional site after all! If you hunt around you will even find a wee photo of me (ever elusive and not much photographed so this is a real find!!)

I am soon to be adding an online shop to it which will sell my prints and the occassional accessory and the even rarer dolls - so there won't be a link to my etsy store from there but the link will remain here on this blog. I am also contemplating adding a 'professional blog' to it with up and coming news but will still probably keep this one going for 'other' stuff.

So -

1) THE PRIZE - a print of your choice - you can see the full range of my prints on this page (click on the thumbnail for larger image and title of print)2) WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO DO? Hop on over to the website at http://www.gillianleesmith.com/index.htm - have a wee look around, come back to my blog and leave a comment, a critique, a word of wisdom - also make sure to name the print that you would like should you be the winner (and also make sure to leave your email so that I can contact you) - or of course you can leave me a message in the 'contact' section of the website 3) CLOSING DATE - I am going to leave this up for a while - till Monday 8th of June infact - so get your comments in before then - on this or any blog posts I do before that date and then I shall pick a number at random and announce it here on Monday 8th June! Once the winner is picked I can contact you for you name and address.

How easy can it be!!

Oh and above is my work in progress design for my new business cards. It feels so good to be finally getting rid of the Gilfling's Designs title - this was a name I picked for my business in the days when I thought I would be making costumes for a living - it will unfortunatley be remaining here on my blog and on my etsy shops for the forseeable future unless I really decide to start afresh but that just seems a bridge too far at the moment.

Cheerio for now!!

PS - I have various bits of news - just not enough time to get to it all on here but I shall in good time!

PPS - Thank you so much for your comments and good wishes regarding my impending move - and also on my blog post regarding reproduction prints - I am so sorry I have been bad at replying but as ever I appreciate your feedback! I will also have new work to show you soon - I am slightly paralysed at the moment by that fact that we move (house and my workspace) in just over 3 weeks - hence the reason for using this time to get ontop of 'all the other' jobs such as website, gallery and wholesale catalogue and marketing (all jobs I have been putting off forever and a day!) so that as soon as I get into the new space my brain and thoughts will be free to get making and creating again!

Hello! Well today I am beside myself with excitement as...................

we are moving house!! Ok so not for another month yet, and of course we have to go through the absolute trauma of packing and actually moving but at this point I don't care about all that, I am just excited!

It is a new build which as anyone who knows me.... knows.... I am more a lover of old buildings full of character and victorian fireplaces and lots of wood and bumpy, marked walls which show their age and the remnants of their past inhabitants....uhm yep just like the house we are in now infact. But....... this house new house will be a real step forward for us in eventually owning our own home so it is the perfect time. There are so many other bonuses too!! Three storeys which means I get the room at the top all to myself (this space is huge in comparison to my workroom right now) and it has stairs to it!!! Right now I am climbing ladders to my workspace and have had a few bad falls down them trying to carry too much so this is a real blessing.

Also I will be giving up my painting studio and combing both workspaces which I am over the moon about. Right now I don't have room in either space for everything but I have been far from clever about using my painting studio lately so really this is a dream for me.

We will have a small garden and a kitchen which is a decent size for actually cooking, also room to entertain and have friends over which has been difficult up till now. I love the house we are in at the moment, it's character and quirks and charm and painted walls and tiny overgrown garden and will miss it, but really this is a huge step for us. I just want to be there already!! I can't wait to get in and see how everything will fit and to really enjoy having lots of space to work in and feel newly inspired - I will make sure to take photos of it as we go.

Unfortunately we can't decorate for at least a year so it is 'magnolia city' but I am looking forward to the challenge of making it 'our own' on an extremely limited budget (when I say limited, what I really mean is non-existent). Also with the potential that someday in the near future it could actually be 'ours' rather than just 'somebody else's' I am inspired to put our stamp on it with furnishings and accessories - so any advice, hints and tips will be much appreciated! I do have plans to make as much as I can myself, such as curtains and cushion covers which will really be a first for me but it is time that I worked on some things for us and not just for 'work'. Unfortunately things like fridge/freezer and washing machine have to take priority in our list of purchases but we are off to the auctions this weekend, not to buy, but just to look to see what kind of things are available and then will hopefully go back once we are actually in our new home.

Can you tell I am having trouble sleeping by the amount of exclamation marks I am using at the moment!!!!!

Oh and the above picture is not our new 'home to be' (whew!) but one of a few photos I took whilst visiting my family last month - some of them were the inspiration for Gwenda's story.

I was reading a few blogs this morning and came across this post by artist Tina Mammoser. I had started to write a comment to her post but when I realised that I had embarassingly actually written about 5 paragraphs (now that is even too long for me for a comment !) I thought it would perhaps be better written as a blog post as I clearly have some very personal opinions on the subject!

Please note however that these are just my own personal feelings about reproduction prints and are by means a disagreement with anyone who does or does not produce reproductions,only paints originals or indeed the prices that individuals charge for their work or reproduction prints. There is room for us all in this art world!

I pondered on the subject of making reproductions of my work for such a long time before taking the plunge and really resisted it for an age - I didn't want to mass produce my work into hundreds and hundred of images (not that it is so popular anyway!!) but gradually I took the decision to do reproductions. I originally went to a print shop to get them done but they raised their prices so much it became no longer affordable for me so just before the start of this year I invested in a fantastic printer after weeks and weeks of research into the best one for me (Epson R2880 incidentally)

so these are the reasons for me - (purely personal)

1)I am not in a position to buy the original art I would like to buy but love to have art on my walls, so can understand the financial constraints for people - yep I have small affordable originals but sometimes an image just strikes me and it is great to have the option to purchase a print

2) I am a v.e.r.y slow worker and if I was depending on my originals solely for my income, I would be on a permanent baked bean diet, so the odd print sale helps me enormously, creates less pressure to constantly be putting originals out there (as well as work that I might not be so happy about or proud of) so I feel more free to concentrate on painting and creating the work I want to create

3) I wonder what the great artists would have chosen to do, given the technology we have now! I am sure even a few of them would have taken the opportunity of great reproduction of their work!

4) so much of myself goes into each and every piece I make and it can take an age to finish it - if more than one person like it and connects with it then I feel good that they have the opportunity to own a reproduction if they so wish

I have however put certain limitations on the way I produce my reproductions.

1) Each image now comes in 2 sizes - approximately A4 and also A3 - each image is in a small edition of 100. Many artists will do much larger editions of this, many will have open editions of their work with the potential for hundreds and even thousands of copies available. That is great for them, but for me personally I decided to keep my reproductions limited.

2) I kind of like the feeling of putting that wee certificate with the description of the piece and numbered ie 1/100 - when that first reproduction goes out I get a kick out of the idea that someone has that 1/100 image. The limited numbers are my way of still taking ownership of the image.

3) My pricing - if anyone were to compare my pricing to many other reproduction prints on etsy or folksy or galleries etc etc - yep my prices are certainly not the cheapest out there which may put some folk off - now not to compare my work to anyones elses (aaah this is where it gets sticky!) but I do feel that there are alot of prints out there that are very very affordable. As in 'charging for not much more than the cost of the paper and ink kind of affordable'. Again this is a very personal thing but when I am selling a print, I am in effect still also selling the image, the idea, my aesthetic and my imagination that has led me to create that piece. To me that is so much more than just ink and paper. It is still a little piece of me.

This will also mean that I will never sell hundreds and hundreds of prints (unless the actual 'work' is the reason that I don't sell hundreds!) but it certainly satisfies my desire to value my own work in a way that is not purely financial.

Having said all that - to me Art is for all - and there are all kinds of artists out there, making different decisions about their work which is wonderful - I love the diversity. I love the fact that some art is so incredible, it is way out of my price range (Oh how I would love to own one of Tina's magnificent larger pieces for example - it also is too big for my teeny front room!) Or that I could go to a village fair or a roadside gallery and pick up an original for a much more affordable price such as outsider art or a piece painted by a hobbyist . I love that I can aspire to someday own a piece by for example this artist, or this one. There is art to suit all pockets and all tastes!

Right I could waffle on so much more but I have just realised the time and I have to be somewhere!! I may come back to this and re-read and edit later!

Take care x

Oh and PS - the image above is available as a print in 2 sizes from my etsy shop !! (Well I couldn't let you go without plugging my own work too - now could I?!)

I just thought I would write this letter to you to let you know that I shall soon be on my way to see you. Although I have no knowledge or understanding of half the knobs and twiddles on my camera I do love her very much. She is not well. Please save her. I depend on her greatly. I am not sure if it is the actual camera that is stricken with an illness or her 'memory' but these problems have been gradually increasing as has my worry about what might actually be her ailment. I really hope you can help me/us!

I would be a full time leather crafter. Oh yes. I know it is not for everyone. I myself was vegetarian for 11 years from mid teens to twenties and would quite possibly have been horrified at the the thought. But ever since I decided in the final year of my Performance Costume Degree to make a costume with leather armour as the feature (never having worked with leather in my life before) I was transfixed by this craft.

I pretty much 'taught' myself. My dad had been a leatherwork apprentice on leaving school and made such things as full suits of armour in carved leather, leather carved wall murals and other such wonders. We also had a table that he had made with a carved medieval hunting scene on it's entire surface. I really must try and find photo's of these things to show you - they are a wonder and he is an incredibly talented artist (a much neglected talent now I must say - I must remember and drop some 'lovingly nagging hints to take up his art again' next time I see him - in other words 'encouragement'!)

Anyhow, once the decision to make this leather armour was fixed in my mind, I of course sought advice and tutoring from my dad. Two minutes was what I got!! Ok possibly a little more - a little encouragement and the advice to just go with it and it would come with practice. So I just had to delve in and the images here and here were the result. I was proud of them and just loved every part of making that costume. It may not have seemed like it at the time due to the stresses of the course and my awful lack of time management but love it I did.

I even thought for a while after graduating that I would really try and develop my work to feature leatherwork quite prominently, hoping to work on re-enactment costumes or costumes for films (big dreams of landing a historical medieval or fantasy films etc). I attended a few workshops on leather-work and have completed a few commission such as here and here.

However life sometimes leads you in an unexpected direction and unfortunately I just cannot commit the time and dedication it needs to become a master leather-craftsmen. However I can still dream and do the odd commission as it comes up as this one did - a leather cuff with a hand crafted design - a present for a surfer/lover of the outdoors featuring his own design. A pleasure to work on and I like the result.

There is something satisfying about working with leather. No fancy machinery or electric tools - all carved with very basic, even primitive tools, completely handstitched, the feel of the material, the staining of the fingers when hand-dying (stains that remain on my own skin for 4-5 days after finishing), the comforting smell of the leather and the dye. Such a tactile craft and one that has been practiced in some form or another for almost as long as we have roamed the earth.

mmmm yes it is, and after a couple of hours lying awake, it was time to distract myself from thoughts turning over and over in my mind....although of course I will suffer for it tomorrow when I have lots and lots to do.

Still it gives me a chance to visit and update this much neglected space. So much is happening and yet the focus at the moment is out of kilter. My part-time job is currently taking precidence over everything else after the busyness of craft fairs pre-christmas, so now I have hours to catch up on. However I am loving it and would really like to tell you more about the work I am doing in future blog posts, so that is my plan.

Also paper-work and tax returns are priority unfortunately. My promise to myself this year to be organised and have them completed early has not really worked out as I would have liked but a few days of burying my head in numbers and forms will see them out of the way...

.....and then, I will be free to get back into the studio and get on with the work that really matters to me. My aim for this year is to be successful at creating a much needed balance between my creative life, my part time job and my home life with each being equally important. Balance - my word for the year I think! I think I need to feel more freedom in my ability to take time to create and work on my work and ironically I have figured out that this means being more in control of my time and how I use it............. it just takes me a while to figure these things out!

Above is a latest 'character in progress' - she has taken a while but I am determined to get her finished this weekend.

For now, I think some meandering writing in my journal should help me empty my head of churning thoughts to enable me to get at least a little more sleep before getting up time!